Star Wars PT- "Perspective" - Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui Gon Jinn - G

Title – PerspectiveAuthor – Sealgirl in seal_girlFandom – Star Wars Prequel TrilogyPrompt – (#30 Death) “Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan; Ordinary day in the temple – philosophy of life and beauty”Word Count – 1239Rating – GSummary – Everyone is troubled on the way home to Coruscant, but not everyone is troubled about the same things.A/N – Set in TPM, on the trip back from Tatooine to Coruscant with Anakin.A/N II – Written for the starwarsficfest, 11th July 2008 – almost a whole month ago! I didn’t realise how nearly complete this was until I went back to try and sort out my notes!

Perspective

Qui-Gon Jinn didn’t sleep.

To ease his mind of worry, he remained deep in contemplation, refusing to dwell on what may happen, and letting the worries of the others slide silently past him, acknowledging them but not dwelling on them.

The Naboo starship was humming with worries and fears, all no less important than his own. Everyone on this ship was anxious; the Queen, Anakin Skywalker, the Captain. Qui-Gon was able to sense them all to a degree, and let them all go. All except one.

The whole trip home, Obi-Wan had tossed and turned in his sleep, weighed down by… something. Close by, and attuned to his Padawan in so many ways, Qui-Gon had sensed his constant waking, his disorientation and his uncertainty.

But he had chosen not in speak to Obi-Wan about it. That the Force was strong with the young man, there was no doubt, and he would be a great Jedi, one of the greatest ever known. But still, Obi-Wan could sometimes be an enigma to Qui-Gon, even after all that they had been through together. And if Obi-Wan did not seek guidance in this, there was no reason to interfere.

And other thoughts kept clouding Qui-Gon’s mind, even in his meditations. Nothing in his training had even prepared him for what he had found on Tatooine, neither the boy Anakin nor the Creature dressed in black. He would soon have to face the Council, and tell them all that he had learned and all that he expected.

Clearly, that was not going to be an easy conversation, but one that he most certainly wasn’t going to back away from. He would do what he must, no matter what the Council thought, or what trouble it may cause.

That trouble lay ahead for all of them was not in question. The creature they had met on Tattooine, and the unexpected discovery of the Chosen One; all did not bode well for the future.

Qui-Gon himself was preoccupied with what was ahead, though through the soothing whispers of the Force, he was not worried. There was no reason to dwell on the future, the future would take care of itself.

Yet inside there was still a tiny glimmer of confidence. The Council would see what he saw in the boy. Obi-Wan was more than ready for the Trials, thus leaving Qui-Gon free to train Anakin Skywalker as a Jedi.

Anakin Skywalker would be a Jedi Knight. Of that, Qui-Gon was certain.

= = =

Obi-Wan sat bolt upright in his bed, suddenly started out of his dreams.

Something vivid and disturbing had shocked him out of sleep. It wasn’t through fear, but something else, something so intangible that Obi-Wan couldn’t remember what it was.

This kept on happening. He’d lost count of the number of times he had woken each night since they’d left Tatooine. If it happened too much more he would have no choice but to speak with Qui-Gon. And he did not wish to speak to Qui-Gon about it, fearing to burden his Master in such difficult times.

Perhaps it was just change. He didn’t have to be a Force-Sensitive to know that changes were coming. The whole Force seemed to be in upheaval, the rapid fluctuations in possible futures that made him feel ill if he thought about it too much.

And there was something else as well. Anakin… that strange little boy that Qui-Gon had found was in dead centre of the turmoil.

Obi-Wan tried to remind himself of his Master’s teachings, and tried to let go of his fears. The future would take care of itself, he reminded himself. That was one of Qui-Gon’s favourite sayings, and Obi-Wan smiled in the darkness.

Still tired, Obi-Wan closed his eyes once more…

… and here was a sense of peace, and purpose in the Temple, there always way. It was quiet, and people spoke in hushed voices and trod lightly through the halls.

Obi-Wan knew the Temple well, he had been there long enough to be familiar with its ways, but not enough to find out all its secrets. There would always be that little bit more to find out.

It was growing dark, and the lights of the city peeped though the windows, and there were even less people about than usual. Though he had trained all day, familiarizing himself with the Force in every aspect imaginable, and though he was tired, he found he could not rest.

Instead he walked through the darkening halls alone. There was the faintest smell of burning in the air, and he breathed in deeply, just to be sure, suddenly doubting his sense of smell.

He looked around once more, surprised it was so quiet, and for a moment he was worried that he had missed something important. Far, far away, there was the dying echo of marching feet. But there was no other sound, so he kept on walking.

Finally, he wound his way upwards, through the main hall, and the galleries, up to the observation sections, where the windows looked out over the cityscape.

He looked out over Coruscant, unable to even see any of the multitude of stars that should have been in the sky, as the clouds that night were thick and black, like billowing smoke.

‘Good evening, Obi-Wan,’ said a voice beside him.

There was no need to turn, he knew who it was.

‘Good evening, Master,’ he replied. There was a moment of respectful silence. ‘It is a beautiful city.’

‘Indeed it is, Obi-Wan.’

There was an understated pause.

‘Master? Why am I here?’ he asked.

There was a soft chuckle from beside him.

‘I do not know,’ Qui-Gon replied. ‘Why do you think we are here?’

Obi-Wan was unable to answer, though he felt he did know what it should be. The answer was important.

‘Why don’t you tell me?’

‘You already know.’

Obi-Wan turned to glance at his Master, surprised by the words. Qui-Gon was still Qui-Gon, as real as he had ever been, the smell of his uniform, his presence in the Force. But there was the faintest hint of blue light around him. For the second time that evening, Obi-Wan doubted his senses.

‘These walls give us safety,’ his Master said. ‘I am not surprised to find you here. These are good days for us, and the Jedi Order. These are good days to remember, full of life and beauty.’

Obi-Wan nodded, but with a frown, realising he didn’t fully comprehend his Master. Something was missing, there was something he didn’t understand.

Qui-Gon looked at him with a warm smile.

‘Maybe I will meet you here again.’

Once more Obi-Wan woke with a start, his heart thudding in fear, but the fleeting image evaporated the moment he realised he was dreaming. The Force was the same as it had always been, filled with the churning possibilities that lay ahead. There was nothing to indicate that anything was wrong anywhere.

He took a long, slow breath to calm himself. There was nothing wrong, he reminded himself. The future would take care of itself.

He turned over, glancing to the floor. On a small mattress on the floor beside him, Anakin Skywalker lay curled up under a pile of blankets, tranquil in deep sleep and oblivious to what was going on around him.

It's a piece filled with dreams and of course, the revelation of the thought processes of Qui-Gon always fascinate. He's better in this than in some fics, more attuned to others and less off on his own tangent. One small thing I didn't understand: "Obi-Wan was an anathema to Qui-Gon."

Qui-Gon is very interesting to write - I haven't tried his POV much, and that was the reason this was so late (the beginning section was a mess!). He is very self-aware and self-confident, but very compassionate at the same time.

"Obi-Wan was an anathema to Qui-Gon."... on reading that back last night, I decided that was too strong, so I've qualified it to "...sometimes was an..."What I was meaning was that, though they are attuned to each other, Qui-Gon still doesn't always understand Obi-Wan - they are strong in the Force in different ways... yes? And Obi-Wan would sometimes react in ways that Qui-Gon couldn't predict or understand fully.

Thanks for clarifying. I did think that Qui-Gon's acknowledgement of others' feelings, then moving on, really stood out as favorable characterization for him. I'm unsure of how to write him at all, so have never tried. M/A has oodles of fics in his POV, but I've gotta say that Obi-Wan's POV stories there (at least in the paltry percentage of fics on that massive archive that I've read) outnumber the Qui-Gon POV ones. Shows how difficult he can be. I'd thought originally the anathema was meant to be enigma.

Took me a while to realise what M/A was but I've figured it out now (had a long day!)Qui-Gon doesn't seem as easy as Obi-Wan - possible also because we only get one film with him in, and we see him in full-Jedi-Master mode for all of it (even when he pops off at the end). He is very "centered", he has a lot of confidence and he cares a great deal about what's going on.I would like to do more with him at some point - this ficathon has really got me into the whole SW fandom!Which means I have a lot of archive reading to do :)

anathema - that's not what I understood it to mean, but since you are the second person to pull me up on that, I've changed it - I don't want something like that to be too distracting and enigma certainly works.

And I've changed Tattooine to Tatooine too - (I've only just learned how to spell Coruscant!)

Glad you enjoyed the fic - and thanks again for the comment and the advice :)

Yeah, "anathema" is familiar to those of us growing up in fundamentalist Christian households ... it's a word used to describe something to be shunned at all costs. Like ... dancing, drinking, gambling, and sex! *GGG*

You can always go to dictionary.com to make sure of a word's meaning. I do that quite a lot.

I liked how you wrote both of them. Qui-Gon so confident that the Council would see what he saw, concerned about Obi-Wan and yet willing to let him make his own decision as to whether to come to Qui or not.

Then the foreshadowing of Anakin and Obi-Wan's dream which showed both the beauty of the Temple and the faintest hint of trouble coming.

Thanks for the comment - Again, I had fun with this one, and it all came together in a way I hadn't expected, especially the dream sequence. I can't seem to resist a little foreshadowing. While I was thinking about the prompt, and the Temple, all I could visualise was that scene in RotS where there are great big plumes of smoke coming out of the top of it!

Actually, I have a couple of longer SW fics in process - one being the expansion of the "Payment in Blood" fic that you liked so much (The other is an extension of Lineage), so that will keep me busy for a while. Hopefully the first bits of those will appear soon, so my fish-quote doesn't drop!